Ziri
by Fanfiction Nerd
Summary: A young boy is kidnapped by an old rival, but on this seemingly routine bounty D runs into another dunpeal who is in the chase not just for money, but revenge. Things could get messy...PLEASE R&R! I'M DONE! PLEASE READ FINISHED PRODUCT!
1. Hooves in the distance

Okay, this is post movies.  I've only seen bloodlust, but I've got a pretty good idea of what all's going on… I think.  If I really outrage anyone, please just tell me what I've done and I'll fix it right away, but please don't flame…this is just based on the movie…or post movie…whatever...  

D rode down the grassy slope in stillness.  Not even a slight breeze disturbed the calmness of the September day.  Even Lefthand was surprisingly quiet, not full of obnoxious comments, and blather, as he usually was.  D paused, pulling gently on the reigns of his steed.  He could sense something… He wasn't alone… He whipped around suddenly, wheeling his horse.  Behind him he heard hooves pattering far off in the distance.  He didn't know of anyone who knew his road…most humans avoided it, and vampires who _did know of it weren't likely to be out during the day, and probably not headed where he was going. _

          He was headed to a small town nearby to the meadow he rode in now.  There had been a vampire attack earlier that week.  Seventeen were killed, one taken.  A young man.  He was to be found dead or alive, and he knew that the citizens of the town had a heavy bounty on his return.  And on the head of the vampire kidnapper.  He also knew that the citizens didn't care if a Dunpeal was their hunter or not.  They just wanted the boy back and vengeance for the ones who were killed. 

          He listened harder, but it seemed the hooves he heard had fallen still.  Maybe it had been his imagination, but he doubted it.  He turned around very slowly, and at last took off again down the road.  


	2. James

"What was that all about?" Grumbled Lefthand, breaking the silence D had begun to enjoy.  "You're wasting our time. You know the people said that if we brought the boy back alive and unspoiled they'd give us a bonus.  I don't know if you like having money, but I do, and we need to get a move on."  

"Quiet." D said, still unsure if he was being followed or not.  They continued on until the sun began to sink beneath the trees, and at last he reached the gates of the town.  They were guarded and D dismounted and approached the door. 

 "Who goes there?" a voice called warily from atop the tall gate.

  "D. The Dunpeal hunter. I'm here to find your lost young man."  There was a shout from above to someone down below, and D went back and mounted his horse, and then rode it through the now open gate.  Somehow D felt a solemn pride that these people did not think he was an untrustworthy beast.   Of course some cowered; he did have vampire blood after all.  But some he saw look relieved…  Some even opened their doors and looked out upon him in the glow of the scarlet sinking sun.  He rode to the center of town.  There was a large crudely built cross erected there, built obviously to ward off more attacks, though D knew it would do little good.  Beneath the cross stood a tall, middle-aged, brawny man with a thick neck and a straw hat.   D dismounted and stood before him.

  "You're the Sheriff of this town?" D asked quietly.  

"Yes. My name's Retter. " He said, puffing out his chest, the gleam of a gold badge caught in the last rays of the sun.  

"And do you have the money?"  D asked slowly. 

 "That we do."  He said, his chest deflating slightly, and suddenly the man seemed weaker and more vulnerable.  "The boy." He said after a moment.  "He's my son… James.  I don't care what happens, but bring him back… Won't you?  It doesn't matter how…I just…need to see him again." 

His voice broke and he threw a burlap sack to D's feet.  

"That's the first quarter of it…The rest will be paid in full if you can bring back James…And the head of that vampire who took him.  We only know that she is called Ophelia…Three nights ago her and some others killed men and women in our town, and they took my boy in the fray. 

 Bring James back…alive…or not.…And proof that the one who took him is dead as well…I want my son back…but…if you can only kill the beast who took him…or if you can only find him and not the woman…you get half the bounty…And…as much as I want this Ophelia dead…I want James back even more…I don't know if he's changed…but…just…please try to bring him back one way or the other…"

  D nodded.  This was the case with many kidnappings.  Often he'd find the body a few miles from town, mangled.  Other times he'd find them in the other Vampire's keeping, changed, and after he killed them, they were returned.  Sometimes the vampires would keep the long-dead body around their camp, just to see if they could attract some human blood trying to find it.

  But D felt differently.  He knew of this Ophelia.  She was beautiful…and a temptress.  She loved to make the victim (almost always male, and usually weak) beg to become one of them…Sometimes she would make them a vampire…and sometimes, she'd bite them, and then simply leave them to bleed in the forest, until wild animals picked their bones clean.  D had dealt with her once before, but that was only for a rescue.  He'd lost a bounty on her account, as the dry bones he found did not prove that the lost was dead, or that it was actually them.  He'd wasted a good two weeks tracking… Partially why the bones were so sterile when he finally came to them.  He'd be glad enough to have this Ophelia meet his sword and then be rid of her.   

D picked up the bag.  Inside were the money and a ragged photo of the boy.  He was handsome enough for a boy of only seventeen or so.  Sandy hair, fair skin, an innocent look about him.  Probably something that Ophelia wished to take from him, along with his life. 

"Oh, and I almost forgot."  Said Retter, looking up at D.  "There's another hunter you'll be competing with.  We'll pay her a quarter too.  Whoever brings back James and proof first will get the last three quarters.  If one brings back my boy and the other the vamp, then you'll get to split the profits.  Half for one Dunpeal, half for the other."

This caught D's attention.  

"What do you mean by that?" he asked carefully, trying as well he could to mask the sudden curiosity in his voice. 

 "I mean," Said Retter, 

"That I hired two Dunpeal hunters.  I've heard only the best about their results in bringing in a bounty.  She was right behind you during your travels I'm sure.  Her name is Ziri.  She'll be coming soon, but I've given you the head start.  All I can tell you for tracking purposes is that they were on horseback.  Ziri will be here any time, so get moving."  He slapped the back flank of his horse and D took off into the night.  


	3. Ophelia

"What was that all about?" Said Lefthand, as D slowed to a trot to enter the wood on the edge of town.  "Another Dunpeal Hunter? I thought you were the only one around these parts." 

 "She could be a new hunter."  D suggested. 

 "Yeah, well I hope so, that way we'll find the poor kid before _she_ can even get her bearings straight." Cackled Lefthand.  

"Don't be so sure." Said D.

 "What do you mean by that?" Lefthand snapped. 

 "I'm saying, don't jump to conclusions. You didn't know me when I was a new hunter.  Dunpeals have natural instincts and reflexes that make them perfect for the hunt, it's their vampire blood.  When I was a new hunter I let these instincts run wild. I was more reckless.  I took greater risks.  She may be good competition still.  She may even be a danger to us, if we aren't careful."  D and Lefthand both paused in silence then, trotting slowly through the black wood.  

"So, where are we going to start?" Lefthand asked after a while.  D didn't answer at first, not sure himself what to do.  Ophelia, he knew, was careful, and tricky, and he hadn't been prepared for tracking her the last time.  One of the reasons he'd failed.  He knew his last approach was not going to be the same one he could use now.  He had to think the way she thought.  This boy, he almost was sure, she wouldn't kill.  He was the son of a man of power and respect in the town… Also he was young, foolish, and handsome.  No, she would not dispose of him yet.  She wanted to break him down… She wanted him to want her life before she gave it to him.  But where would she take him?  Somewhere safe, unseen by human eyes… somewhere peaceful… and beautiful. A place that would make the life of even a vampire glamorous to a man's eyes.

D was right; Ophelia had taken him to Centelion.  It was a sort of haven for demons and vampires, where there were glittering caves with rows fine mahogany coffins for each day, weak, helpless villages nearby, and loud, extravagant parties of feasting and music each night.  It was a place surrounded by spells and myths that meant many either didn't believe it existed, or didn't care to ever find out.  Huge towering trees surrounded a grassy glen that had fountains; ancient stone carved shelters, stages, and strings of blood red lanterns that dyed the nightly parties scarlet.   And James, though petrified at first, slowly began to appreciate the beauty of this place and people, their ancientness, and majesty. 

And Ophelia, she was so kind to him, and so beautiful.  In the eyes of men and vampires alike Ophelia had radiant features.  A slim body, an ample bosom, snow white skin, deep red lips, and sparkling ruby eyes.  Her hair was rippling, black as a river flowing on a moonless night, and her laugh chimed like merry bells.  James was already falling under the spell of her beauty, and he began to even enjoy the nights of her parties, though the food for him was scarce.  He sometimes was frightened by the way she would throw hungry glances at his long neck, and he couldn't help but notice her long fangs that she flashed along with her smiles.  He did not want to become a vampire, not yet.  But he was at the beginning of the road that Ophelia wanted him to travel.  She knew he found her attractive, and he also knew that the lifestyle she led was beginning to seem more compelling to him as well.  And she smiled inwardly, the night she invited him to sleep in her coffin, as he readily accepted.  She knew he could not resist her.  But not yet.  She still had to wait some time before he would be under her spell and want to become a vampire.  Then she would grant his desire.  _But…_ she thought,  _Not__ yet. _


	4. Revenge

D thought all through the night what he might do, trying best to ignore the frequent comments from Lefthand about time, and how he had wasted too much of it when Ophelia had been involved before.  Then it came to him.  D knew where she was.  It was a full day's journey from where he was now, but that would fit the time frame, and it seemed the most likely place.  Lefthand was about to begin another complaint when D squeezed his hands tightly around the rough leather reigns of his steed as he spurred his horse quickly into the night.  

Ziri rode quickly.  He could see D's path plainly in the soft earth.  She knew it was weak to do so, but she had to follow him.  She didn't know where to go…where Ophelia could have taken the boy.  D seemed to have a pretty good idea, as his path was straight and unwavering.  She was about an hour behind him, so his trail was fresh.  She was careful not to speed up too much, because it might alert him to her presence, but the moon was full and the light was plenty for her to track him. 

 She'd only been a hunter for a few years.  Going around picking up easy bounties.  Living in slums and tiny villages that didn't know or care about Dunpeals.   Her mother had been a vampire, and her father a helpless victim of her lust.  He'd just been a pointless struggling weak human that she'd kept as a plaything for a while and then disposed of.  But to her mother's extreme unhappiness, he fathered a child to her… Ziri… Abandoned at a young age, Ziri had been on her own for decades, shunned by all who she met, utterly alone.  And she knew she needed revenge… Against Ophelia, that bitch. Her mother… her greatest enemy.

D rode all through the night until the sun rose.  Even in the forest the sun hurt his eyes and made him feel weak.  But he couldn't rest.  He knew Ophelia's charms did not take long to work against young men, and he didn't want to be late in arriving.  Besides the fact that he wanted to save the boy, he would be facing off with another Dunpeal in the hunt.  Little did he realize Ziri was tailing him closely, as he neared Centelion with every mile he rode.  

Soon Ziri realized that D was heading toward Centelion, however, she dared not to cut ahead, and risk being caught by him.  She'd heard rumors about him, the silent and cold Dunpeal.  That he was a murderer, who would do anything for a bounty.  She needed to somehow make a plan so that she could distract D long enough to take the boy, and kill Ophelia, and then the bounty would be hers. She needed to stop him…or at least, _slow him… She rode on forward, trying desperately to think of a plan, as they drew closer and closer to the Centelion_


	5. Confrontation

As D rode on, he began to notice things.  Broken branches and displaced leaves, and horse hoof imprints in the mud.  _Ophelia may be tricky_, he thought, _but she still leaves an obvious trail_.  A trail, that D now followed, and that led to the heart of this great wood and to the vampire paradise where she now hid.

Ophelia knew of D.  She had known his father.  She also knew he was a hunter that had hunted her…once.  But that was five years before, and D had been pushed to the back of her mind with her new _project.  She had no idea that D was stalking her at this moment, or she surely would have picked a safer location.  _

Humans did not know Centelion existed.  She knew that the people of the village would put up a bounty.  They always did.  But usually they hired pathetic humans that couldn't track another loud clunking man in broad daylight.  Much less a band of vampires who were veiled in the magic of Centelion.  She didn't know that the little villagers could afford the prowess of Vampire Hunter D.  Or any Dunpeal for that matter.  Perhaps if she had known then she would have been more careful.  But the error in her judgment could prove to be fatal.

As dawn approached the second day, D rode on through the wood.  Centelion would be another day's ride.  He'd reach it by about sunset.  Perfect, D thought, Right when all the hoards of demons and vamps come out to play.  He wondered how he was going to work this out, because his timing was all wrong.  He was riding, a bit slower now, in pondering, when he heard a sound behind him, he stopped suddenly.  It was the clopping of hooves, mirroring his own, but they slowed and then stopped a moment too late.  He wheeled his horse and looked closely through the trees. 

 He saw movement, and heard the swish of a cloak and the crunching of leaves.  _The other Dunpeal, D thought.  The sound came closer, but his vision could not penetrate the dense deep wood, and all he saw was shadow, in the gray pre-dawn light.  D pulled out his sword slowly.  He knew it was Ziri, but that did not mean he was safe.  At last he could make her out, slowly coming toward him, still hidden by shadow and trees until at last she stood almost right in front of him.  _

She had long sheets of raven hair that cascaded down to her waist.  Her eyes were deep almost purple black.  Her skin was an ivory shade that made her face glow like the moon itself in the fading starlight.

"So you found me out." She said.  "That's right.  I am a hunter, like you, but in the beginning didn't have the slightest clue as to where Ophelia was heading.  Thanks. You pretty much hand-fed me the answer I'd been looking for.  Centelion.  That's a dangerous place.  But I can handle it, even if I will be alone." 

 "Don't count on that." D said in a low rumble.  

Ziri shivered inwardly, _that voice.  But she kept a cool face. _

 "What, you think that this Dunpeal can't outstrip you in the hunt?"  

"You're young, and foolish." D said plainly, his voice slow, but precise.  "I am experienced.  I don't act stupidly on my impulses because I'm threatened or afraid." 

Ziri felt a pang of worry.  She was being rather stupid.  What about all those things she'd heard about this D?  She _was vulnerable.  He had his weapon at the ready, and he was mounted which gave him a height and speed advantage.  What __had she been thinking?  _

She crossed her black clad arms with defiance.  She could still win.  

"Well," She said, "I may be stupid, but I need that money, and this mission is solely for me to complete.  I have reasons of my own for doing this D.  Just as you have your reasons for hunting.  We all do.  Me, I need that cash, and this mission, and I won't let you stand in my way." 

 With a single sudden movement, she leapt into the air.  She wasn't sure what she was doing exactly, all she knew was that she was strong and fast, and she couldn't have D taking her bounty, and her revenge away from her.  Somehow she had to stop him for a while, and for that, she had to fight him.  


	6. A Slight Hitch

She landed lightly on a branch in the tree above D and quickly drew out her bow, and took an arrow from her quiver.  She _had to stop him. Even if it meant hurting him.  She didn't have time to do much else, because with one swift stroke, D's sword severed the connection between bough and trunk, and sent the place she'd stood crashing to the ground.  But catlike and quick, she'd already sprung to another tree, another bough.  And now D couldn't see her.  The sun was rising, but it was still a twilight time of day, and shadows were everywhere. _

Shadows that Ziri knew how to slink in and out of easily enough.  Meanwhile, as D focused his energies on finding her, she was carefully setting her bow.  She did not mean to kill D.  She heard great things about him. Terrible, but great nonetheless.  He'd saved many people, and that she knew was true.  But she needed to hurt him enough that this mission would be hers alone.  No one else's.  She closed one eye, and took aim.  The sound of the twang of a bowstring and a whizzing arrow was all D heard.  He wheeled around just in time to see it flying straight at him.  With a stroke of his blade he clove the shaft of the arrow in two.  Now he knew where Ziri hid.  He leapt off his horse's back, flying straight at her, blade before him.  She froze, then at the last second, summoning her wits, leapt from the branch she stood on just before the tree she'd perched in lost its top half.  

And she knew that the stories were true.  He was not just another hunter.  Not one that would give up or lose as easily as she hoped.  She knew that magic was the only way she could help herself now.  She pulled out another arrow from the shadowy branch where she crouched, and this time, whispered a few words under her breath, too soft, even for D to hear.  With a slight blue glow the arrow was bound in a spell.  She took aim, and this time, with all accuracy, aimed straight for D. 

 Not allowing the bowstring to thrum as loudly she had before, she let her arrow sail.  It only had to pierce the skin.  And that it did.  D had his back to her, and had only time to turn around and face her arrow as he heard it, and it plunged into his chest.  The blue glow that had surrounded the arrow spread quickly over D's wound, and then disappeared inside him.  He fell to his knees, and looked down at his chest.  Blood dripped from the wound.  With a lightly shaking hand, he took the arrow's shaft and pulled it from within him, wincing at the pain.  Ziri leapt down from the branch where she had until then remained hidden. 

 "A simple spell." She said, as D clutched the place where he had been wounded, and blood spilled out over his white hand.  "You won't die..." She said, looking at the pain on his face, "You'll just be out of commission long enough for me to take this bounty for myself." 

 D's shoulders hunched, he doubled over from the pain.  Normally a wound like this would not hurt as much.  But it seemed that along with the arrow a burning ice had run into his veins.  His every nerve seared with agony.

"It's really just a pain charm.  It paralyzes the victim with excruciating pain until the effects wear off, in several days." Ziri stood over him, smugly looking down at his feebleness.   D looked up, his face creased, 

"What did she do to you?" he asked haltingly.  

Ziri's eyes widened.  _How did he know?  She crouched down to eye-level, and looked at him long and hard, then a smile curved on her lips and she patted his cheek. _

 "Have a fun time." She sneered, and then stepped over his slumped body, returned to her horse, and rode into the morning.


	7. Proof

As soon as she disappeared, D collapsed into the dry leaves on the forest floor.  His eyes rolled back into his head in agony, and his fist clenched around the wound, his long nails digging into his palm.  His head spun and throbbed, and the wound spilled blood and burned.  He passed into oblivion.

D woke up with Lefthand's voice in his ear.  

"D?  D! Wake up!"  The pain was still crippling.  D had never felt a physical pain as violent as this before.  Lefthand spoke again. "D. Are you alright?"

 D groaned.  

"Well you're alive." Lefthand murmured. 

 "Can you destroy this spell?" D finally was able to moan through gritted teeth.  

"I can try." Lefthand said, "But I'm better with external spells…Internal, not so sure… I can still try, though, can't I? Here goes."  

He turned his face to within D's hand, and sought out the spell.  "It's everywhere," Lefthand grumbled.  And that it was.  In every nerve it pulsated with a burning blue glow.  

"How am I going to do this?" After thinking for a while and having no great revelations, he finally just began to suck in as he would normally, since his suction inhaled spells and magic, not physical elements, D remained quite unharmed.  But this was a stubborn spell.  It was very reluctant to be pulled from the nerves that it sapped pain from.  Some of it he could not suck in, and in other places a residue remained.   Once he'd gotten all he could, Lefthand turned his face back onto the surface of D's palm.  "I sucked up all that would come.  There's still some left though.  Can you get up?"  

D moaned again, and then slowly, he propped himself up.  There was still residual pain, but most of the piercing burning agony that had been in him was no longer there.  His arrow wound still hurt as well.  He whistled softly, and his horse came to him.  In the saddlebag he pulled out a short knife, a needle, and some linen bandages.  He knew that a spell's wound would not heal so easily as others. With the knife he cut open a long slit in his shirt.  He pulled out several strands of his hair and once twisted together, ran them through the fat black needle's eye.  Carefully he knit together the flesh on either side of the puncture drawing it shut with care.  He cleaned off the caked dried blood, and wrapped a strip of linen about his middle, to keep the injury covered.  Then he sewed together the cut in his clothes, stood, and walked around a bit.  

He felt stiff, and a memory of sharp pain still lingered.  In some places he throbbed, but otherwise he could manage.  He stretched lightly.  It was mid afternoon.  He'd lost almost three quarters of the day. He was lucky the place he'd fallen had been in the shade of the trees; otherwise, his injuries could have been greater, if he was in direct sun at noon. 

Ziri had been more formidable and dangerous that he'd foreseen.   He needed to be on his guard.  Still, she probably thought she'd head back after tonight, and he'd still be lying, a swooning heap in the leaves.  He leapt onto his horse and took off.  It was his job, now, to prove her wrong.


	8. Plans

His steed was fast, but Ziri had a lead on him.  Hopefully she'd have to spend some time planning, and she took a slow pace, imagining that D would be out of commission for longer that he had been.  Luckily, D was correct.  Ziri was far ahead of him, but she slowed to a stop as she neared Centelion's border and the sun sank.  She'd gotten lucky the last time she'd faced danger and hadn't had a plan, but this time she'd be up against more than a dozen full vampires… At night.  Not a good plan at all.  

The thought of Ophelia that whorish slut seducing that young boy and then destroying his life made her blood boil.  She wouldn't let her do it.  But she was running out of time.  Tonight could be the night she claimed his life, if she hadn't already.  What then? Half the bounty would be gone, and she'd have let Ophelia get away with the inevitable, and the stoppable.  She shook her head to clear her thoughts, she needed a plan!  She knew that there probably weren't more than fifteen vampires, still a large number to be seen together in these days.  And a very large number to try to take on at night on their home turf.  She somehow needed an advantage over them.  The only solution she could think of would be daylight, but time was against her, and against James.  

As night fell the Vampires began to wake and rise from their coffins.  James was roused from a fitful sleep by Ophelia, whose he'd slept beside that night.    He smiled to see her.  She made him feel so excited and nervous whenever he saw her.  

_Could it be love? _He thought, _Could I love a vampire?  He wondered what his father would say…And yet, every time he saw her lovely smile, and with each glass of sweet wine and each note of soft music he wondered why the Vampires were hated so, and why it would be so wrong to love Ophelia.  Her people were merry and jovial, always very polite to "Master James".   Somehow in the back of his mind, he knew they were murderers.  He knew that if he turned for but a moment their fangs would be in his neck before he could breathe, but it was pushed further and further back into his consciousness as he watched Ophelia dance in the starlight.  _


	9. Strike On Centelion

Now Ziri was right on the edge of their wood.  With her sharp hearing she could catch drifting hints of music floating through the trees, and the scent of fresh blood nearby.  Her stomach gave a hungering jolt at the smell of that warm sweet blood.   She'd know that scent anywhere.  There was a kill nearby.  A feast happening there in the haven itself.  Her tongue moistened.  How long had she fasted and wished for its taste? How long had it been since she'd drunk its nectar?  Not since she was a tiny girl, before she knew right from wrong.  Still, she longed for it now, as she tasted it on the wind.  She shook her head. _ No, she could not be distracted.  She had to find him.  James.  Her mind focused.  She had to do this right, or all would be lost._

  Silently she dismounted and then leapt up into a tree, and then sprung lightly from branch to branch, tree to tree, nimbly making her way closer to the city, and drawing her bow from out from over her shoulder.  D gained on Ziri moment by moment.  He knew she was close, he could smell her.  He could also smell blood, and demons.   There'd been a hunt nearby.  There were some torn leaves and all of the sudden D came upon a large black horse similar to his own, tied up on a tree.  It reeked of Ziri.  She was close.  She dismounted…not twenty minutes ago.  He imitated Ziri's plot, and tied off his horse, but instead of taking the foliated highway, he walked stealthily across the ground, not displacing a leaf, not snapping a twig.  He crept swiftly but silently in the fading light.  

Every moment he heard music more loudly, laughter, voices….Then, he heard a swift change in the noises… Instead of laughter there came screams, shouts of rage, and roars.  _Ziri_,_ D thought.  So she'd struck. Headstrong as she was, D did not doubt her strength.  He hurried forward more quickly now, knowing making noise didn't matter any more.  When he got to the clearing, there were bodies everywhere. Arrows shot through everything.  There was still some noise, but now it came from the carven staircase that descended to the caves below.  D leapt swiftly across the clearing, and bounded down the marble stairs.  The sight that met his eyes as he entered the caves was not a happy one.  Ziri had an arrow set in her bow, aiming it for Ophelia's heart, but Ophelia had her fangs mere inches from James's jugular vein.  James's face was pale and little tears plopped down his face. _

 "Girl!" Ophelia cried, "You don't know what you're doing.  Even if you shoot it'll be too late for the boy!"

 "I won't let you have him!" 

 "Why are you doing this?"  Ophelia bellowed, narrowing her eyes and inching her razor fangs closer to his milky skin. 

"Because of what you did to me!" 

 "I do not pray on women. They beg too much. Men are my only victims…"  Her fang brushed ever so slightly against his neck and he cried in fear.  

 "Except for the one time when the man made you the victim.  When he forced you to have a pain in your life.  Don't you remember? Your child?" Ziri cried, her eyes narrowing with utter hatred.  Ophelia's eyes widened, and then she laughed, keeping her mouth still dangerously close to his neck. 

 "So you're the foolish little Dunpeal I brought into the world.  I thought I'd killed you… I'd hoped I'd killed you, abandoning you as an infant."  Ophelia shrugged "Ah well, too bad.  So I suppose now you're back with a vengeance?"  She grinned.  

"You'd better believe it bitch." Ziri said through gritted teeth.

 "Ooh, so full of idle words you are.  Especially in such dire circumstance."

  "Dire for you," Ziri growled.

"You underestimate my protection." Ophelia smiled.  She snapped her fingers and suddenly, ten vampires leapt from behind wide stalagmites and pillars, and in a second chaos ensued.  At this moment, D leapt from his hiding place by the stairs, and three vampires lost their heads.   Arrows went through the hearts of four more. A vampire charged at Ziri, and defenseless, her last arrow spent, she crouched, waiting for the deadly blow that never came.  She opened her eyes, and looked up to see D battling fiercely with all three vampires at once. 

 Ziri's eyes widened, _Where__ had Ophelia gone? She looked around frantically, and then saw her, dragging James up the stairs.  She was torn.  On one hand, D had just saved her life, and she was in his debt. Now he needed her help.   But on the other hand, Ophelia was getting away. With James, with the bounty.  With her revenge.  Ziri threw a glance back to D but then dashed up the stairs after Ophelia.  Leaving D alone with three fierce vampires in the dead of night._


	10. Escape

Ziri followed the sound of James's muffled screams, willing for him to be quiet, or else Ophelia would silence them.  Her vision was sharp in the dark, and Ziri soon caught sight of Ophelia, carrying James in his arms.  He appeared to be unconscious.  Ziri dashed after her. 

D was backed slowly into a corner by the three ravening beasts. The greatest of the three smiled widely, and then struck out at D, who cried out in agony, for as he blocked the first attack, one from either side of him came from the other two, and he felt gashes on his left and right ribcage, stretching down.  He gave a wide stroke across, which cut the vampires, but only enraged them more.  As the first ran forward D acted fast and shoved the sword straight through its heart.  The other two, angered by their friend's slaughter, attack full-force.  After several moments of fighting, one was decapitated, and the other was sent scampering out of the caves running full force.  D fell down on one knee, and coughs up a tiny splatter of blood.  He gritted his teeth together, wiping the blood from his lip, and stood, ignoring the slices on either side of his torso, and followed the vampire up the stairs into the night.  

Ziri narrows her eyes as she follows behind Ophelia,  _That__ dirty slut had better not have hurt that boy or she would have her head before she knew what had touched her.  She quickens her pace, wanting the kill more and more.  Suddenly the sounds ahead of Ziri that she'd been tracking stop.  She stops suddenly too.  She creeps forward very slowly.  Suddenly a vampire is upon her.  It's Ophelia.  They fight, weapons forgotten, tooth and nail their only knives now.  Ophelia however, is far too strong for Ziri's will, and locks her in a grasp so that Ziri can only whimper in pain.  She speaks as she draws Ziri's hair aside and bares her neck.  _

"I will now drink your blood. Even if it is filthy half-blood I will take it from you and you can watch the world fade away from you. The world that has already shunned you.  And you can watch, as your last hope of revenge vanishes." Ziri felt Ophelia's face so close to her neck.  Her fangs raking across the skin, finding the place where they must enter and draw out her life blood.  Ziri weakened in Ophelia's grasp, admitting defeat and relinquishing herself to die.  She had tried…And failed…failed the people in the town.  Failed herself.  

Suddenly there was a crash and a scream of terror. Then with the ringing of a blade, and the shriek of death, Ophelia, head severed, falls to the ground.  D picks up her head gingerly with one hand and stuffs it in a sack, returning his trusty sword to his sheath.  He turns to see where Ziri has gone, but she's vanished.  Along with the boy.  D shakes his head, but knows he'll still get half the bounty.  Lefthand however won't have it.  "You earned the full bounty fair and square! She'd be dead by now if it weren't for you!" "I couldn't let Ophelia just kill her."  D replies, making his way through the forest.  "Why not?" Lefthand says, "It would have done us better, than letting that stupid girl get away with half the bounty when we saved her life, TWICE!" "Quiet," D said, but Lefthand continued to mumble angrily.  He got back to his steed to find Ziri's already gone.  The sun is beginning to rise.  D knows of a hollow nearby where he can stay hidden from the sun, and bind his still painful wounds.  He mounts his horse and trots into the night.


	11. Trust

Ziri lay curled in a bed of leaves.  The boy lay next to her. He was alive, just knocked out…  He was worth half the bounty to her, but it wasn't the half she'd hoped for.  It wasn't the half she'd risked her life for.  She'd wanted to destroy Ophelia with her own hands…instead that other Dunpeal had done it, and at the same time given her an even heavier debt to owe him, added to him saving her life once before.  She was cold, tired, upset, and ravenously hungry.  It didn't help having the boy laying there, his breathing soft, and his blood pumping so loud it pounded in her ears like a drum.  She could smell it… It was so close.  She felt her fangs longing for a kill.  The bounty was for the boy's return. Dead or alive.  She gritted her teeth but her will bent to the hunger inside her for blood that was so strong.  She looked at his face.  That fool boy had nearly lost his life, because he'd been tempted by Ophelia.  What did it matter if he lived or died? Why was it her concern?  She needed his blood to be strong…Dead or alive the bounty would be hers.  She grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him over to her.  With her long nails she pushed his fair hair back from his neck, and caressed the pulsing vein.  She lifted him up in her arms, and dropped her face down to his neck, her fangs ready to plunge into him and drink.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you,"  D said, looking down at Ziri from the entrance to the little leafy hollow.  Ziri pulled her head up, and then pushed the boy off her lap, shocked and ashamed at what she'd almost done.  She hung her head.

  "It doesn't make it any better."  D said, moving down into the sheltered cave, to where Ziri lay.  "Drinking the blood.  You think it will be this last one, and it will satisfy you for the rest of the times, and that the next time it won't be so bad when you want it, because you had some already…But it's not true.   It only makes you want it more.  I've seen it before Ziri." He said, pushing the hair off her face. 

 Tears fell from her eyes, and she turned away at his touch, trying to hide.

 "It's so hard," she finally sobs.  

"I know." He said.  "But we can't let the urges take us over…We can't let it rule who we are.  We are hunters.  We have to be strong.  We have to be strong for them."  He motioned a pale hand to James, still lying asleep in the leaves.   "We're the only ones who have the power to defend them.  The power to live without drinking their blood.  If we lose that power than we just become vampires.  We become the enemy…and…yes... It's hard….But….It's the only life we get to live."  

 Ziri looked up. 

 "I wanted to kill her.  I wanted her to die for making me live this life.  I tried to tell myself it was for my father…for all the people she'd killed.  But it was for me.  It was for what she did to me.  What she made me. For making me live this life and come into this world.  When you killed her and saved me…I was almost mad that you did it…Death felt like it might be a release…it might be sweeter than the life I have now." 

 "Death will come, Ziri," D sighed, "In time all things fade away.  But…Until then…We must help humans to survive.  And we must hope for the day when they no longer need protection."  

"What happens then?"  Ziri asks.  

"Then we'll be done…and…earth's need for us will be through…When that day comes…we can finally rest."  D said, taking Ziri's chin in his hand and lifting it up.  D stood and began to leave.  

"Take him," she said.  D didn't turn.  "Take him away. I don't deserve any of that bounty."  

D pauses. 

"I trust you." He said, and then left the hollow, going out into the morning light. 


	12. Fin

D returned with the head of the vampire into town, and was awarded his bounty.  Retter looked grieved that D was not able to return his son, but as the sun set on that day, D lingered outside the town gates, watching Retter lose hope in his son's return. 

 As stars began to spring out in the velvet sky and the sheriff turned to go, soft hooves pattered into town, and Ziri appeared on her horse, James behind her, his arms clasped around her waist.  With a slight smile, D rode into the night.  He heard hoofbeats behind him, and looked.  It was Ziri. 

 D slowed down and wheeled his horse.  She rode past without looking at him…But then slowed to a stop some feet later…  She looked back at him, and he nodded to her.  

"Thank you," she mouthed softly.

 And then with a spur of her heels, she was gone. Somehow, D could feel this won't be the last he'd be seeing of young Ziri…not for a long while.


End file.
